The Russians have exhibited through much of their history an odd affection for their tyrants and a corresponding disdain for reformist rulers. But as to the nostalgia for Stalin, that seems perfectly easy to understand from the tribal/national standpoint: "Under Stalin we were respected. Under Stalin we were feared. Under Stalin we beat the Germans and left Hitler looking like six tins of catfood. Burnt catfood."

Nobody since then--not erratic, brave Khruschev, not smug, corrupt Brezhnev, not cerebral, ailing Andropov, pathetic Chernenko, idealistic Gorbachev, sottish Yeltsin, bland and bloodless Putin--none of them have come remotely close to possessing Stalin's psychopathic panache as a world leader, and to some mindsets that's worth a spot of repression, a few show trials and purges here, some mass starvation there.

It's interesting to speculate what would have become of the USSR had Stalin...oh, I don't know, died from eating a tin of tainted sardines or something in 1927. It's not that the other Bolshies of the period were touchy-feely kindsa guys, but there were at least a few capable contenders out there (sought out and exterminated over the next few years), and it's tough to see how they could have been any beastlier. Considering how malignant a spirit ruled over the USSR for most of its formative years, there is something very nearly poignant, and even noble, in the Soviet Union's attempts in its latter years to transcend that dark heritage.

cordially,

"That lot" being the Nazis shooting at them from the west or the Sovs shooting at them from the east? I recall reading once that of the cohort of Russian males aged between 14 and 20 on the day Germany invaded, just 3% remained alive on the day Germany surrendered. Something like 90% of German casualties in WWII were inflicted by the Red Army.

I saw the film; enjoyed it well enough. A couple of Russian teenagers of my acquaintance (raised on tales from a grandfather who drove a tank during the war) regard it with contempt, however, as Hollywood claptrap.

cordially,